NINTENDO 3DS IS BEST-SELLING VIDEO GAME PLATFORM FOR THIRD STRAIGHT MONTH

Nintendo 3DS continued to build momentum in 2013 and finished as the best-selling video game system in the U.S. for the third consecutive month. A strong second month for Animal Crossing: New Leaf helped sales of Nintendo 3DS hardware and software increase by 14 and 45 percent, respectively, over the same time frame last year.

Highlights for the month include:

- Animal Crossing: New Leaf sold more than 150,000 combined physical and digital units in its second month on the market, bringing its lifetime total to more than 660,000 combined units.

- The lifetime total for Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon for Nintendo 3DS surpassed 820,000 combined physical and digital units.

- New Super Mario Bros. U for Wii U surpassed 830,000 lifetime sales of combined physical and digital units.

- EarthBound launched July 18 for the Virtual Console service on the Nintendo eShop for Wii U and is off to a great start. Only two eShop titles, New Super Luigi U and Pikmin 3, generated more consumer spend in the same time period since launch.

Nintendo 3DS and Wii U fans will have a lot to play this summer and through the rest of 2013. Starting with the recently released Pikmin 3 (Wii U, Aug. 4) and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (Nintendo 3DS, Aug. 11) and continuing with The Wonderful 101 (Wii U, Sept. 15), Pokémon X and Pokémon Y (Nintendo 3DS, Oct. 12), The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (Wii U, October), Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U, November), The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (Nintendo 3DS, November) and Super Mario 3D World (Wii U, December).

*Data regarding physical sales of games in July are from the NPD Group. Data regarding digital downloads of games and combined physical/digital life-to-date numbers are from Nintendo's internal sales figures. All numbers are specific to the United States only.